Fatal Attraction - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages This movie has gained importance for the psychological disorder reflected by Glenn close, where in she forces herself to get attached to the man involved with her. The abnormal mental disorder with Glenn Close is very clear in the movie as it was a psychological illness called Border line personality disorder.
In this movie, this female character depicted symptoms like, impulsiveness, extreme anger ness, suicidal tendencies, instability with interpersonal relationship and fear of rejection. Borderline personality disorder is a mental illness in which the victim shows continue disturbance of personality instability, mood swings, identity crisis and self – image issues and prolonged thinking patterns. The person can remain disassociated from people and can bring about negative impact on oneself and to others to a great extend. This can bring over a disaster effect on the patient and can even turn fatal to people around them. The patient can have a distorted self image and can have uncontrollable mood swings and impulsive attitude which their loving ones can find strange and horrifying. The most of the symptoms of this disease appear in a person during adolescence or in the late adulthood. Clinical Features Reflected by Glenn Close The first symptom shown by Glenn close is her attempt to suicide, where in she tries to slit her wrist .This is a major clinical symptom of Border line personality disorder where the patient feel dejected and abandoned and tries to accomplish their goals by putting their lives on risk. The character is showing a sign of self harming which means that she is an advanced stage of border personality disorder. She is also getting obsessed with the man she had affair with, and is trying relentlessly to stalk him and his family. She is trying to harm his family members in order to take of her jealousy on them .This is a kind of mood swing which can get extreme in patients of border personality disorder. She is following the man she got involved everywhere, and this is a case of compulsion because of extreme mood swings. Moreover Glenn Close is sending a tape with abusive words to his family as part of her mental illness. She is also showing the splitting aspect where she idealizes Michael Douglas and demonizes his family. She attempts to kill his wife and kid which is indeed an atrocious act. “ The phenomenon of “splitting” signifies an inability to reconcile alternative or opposing perceptions or feelings within the self or others, which is characteristic of borderline personality”(American Psychiatric,2001,pg.47). She has also identity crisis where she thinks she is being dejected and is forcefully tries to cling on to the Michael Douglas fro love and support. The female character also has extreme mood swings wherein she abuses the man and also tries to be nice at the same time. The Character and the Personality Disorder The character in the movie Glenn Close very clearly depicted the symptoms of Border personality disorder. She is not showing a normal behavior as she threatens the man she is involved with and is intimidating him to love her. She is also performing suicidal attempts which are a chronic symptom of border personality disorder. This could be mainly due to the aloneness experienced by the character in the movie. “Aloneness is experienced as a terrifying loss of self that the patient of BPD may defend against by action or by distorting reality”(Gunderson,2008pg.11). Glenn close her is showing fear of abandonment where the victim make desperate attempts to hold on to the failed relationship. She also loses control on her feelings and become impulsive very easily and attempts on self destruction and ...Download file to see next pagesRead More